1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to display driving schemes and displays and more particularly to a system and method for disabling particular display and display driver operations during display modulation based on the display data.
2. Description of the Background Art
Decreasing power consumption and heat generation in display systems have always been important design criteria for display engineers. This has especially been the case in recent years because displays (e.g., televisions, computer monitors, micro-LCDs, etc.) have been increasing in size and/or resolution. For example, displays having a resolution of at least 1920×1080 pixels are now common, as are displays that are larger than fifty inches diagonally.
As will be described below, lowering power consumption and heat generation are sympathetic goals. Often, lowering power consumption in a display system will also lower the amount of heat generated by the display system. Conversely, an increase in power consumed in a display system will increase the amount of heat generated by that display system. In addition, often when excess heat is generated, still more power is consumed to cool the system by powering cooling components.
Display engineers try to reduce the power consumed by a display and its associated driving components for various reasons. As described above, one of the most important reasons is that power consumption is directly tied to the amount of waste heat that a display system generates. Furthermore, conserving power increases battery life in portable electronic devices, especially those with high-resolution displays that require high bandwidths to supply image data and control signals to the display. Third, as the power requirements of a display system increase, the components (e.g., heavier-duty busses, extra cooling equipment, etc.) of that display system will also increase to handle the additional electrical load on the display system.
There are also many reasons why display engineers try to reduce the amount of heat generated by a display system. First, as described above, when a display system produces more heat, more cooling components (e.g., cooling fans, heat sinks, vents, etc.) have to be incorporated into the display system to compensate for the heat and cool the system to operating temperature. Additionally, excessive heat can damage many of the display system components over time and degrade display performance and/or cause catastrophic device failure. For example, the image quality of liquid crystal displays is susceptible to excessive heat build up. Also, integrated-circuit micro-processors have very specific temperature operating ranges that have to be maintained. As those integrated circuits handle higher data bandwidths more heat builds up more rapidly.
Finally, many display systems have light sources (e.g., lamps, etc.) used to illuminate the display. Such light sources often generate large amounts of heat near display components also degrading their performance over time and/or causing catastrophic failure. Therefore, display systems would also benefit if the heat generated by the lamp could be reduced or discharged away from the display components.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that conserves power during display system operation. What is also needed is a system and method that reduces heat produced by the display system during operation.